Totem

3/21/2024

**_Short, one-dimensional cabin-in-the-woods flick with padding_** Six youths mysteriously find themselves at a remote cabin with a graveyard nearby. The problem is, some sort of barrier prevents them from leaving the area. Meanwhile they discover an ancient stone totem pole in the graveyard. What’s going on? "Totem" (1999) is cabin-in-the-woods horror that mixes "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" and “Evil Dead” with the Zuni doll of “Amelia” (from “Trilogy of Terror”) and a little “Subspecies.” The runtime is only 68.5 minutes while the overlong opening credits run 4 minutes, 40 seconds, and the end credits 6.5 minutes. This combined with 2 minutes of footage from 1958’s “The Vikings” leaves less than 55.5 minutes for the actual story. Thankfully, the story is fairly we